URGENT PLS HELP should i drop to standard english? (1 Viewer)

[greersy_01]

hi! I am currently in year 11 (I just started year 12 content), and I'm doing English advanced. I haven't had the best year, so my marks for everything have been pretty bad. for English prelim, I got 60% I haven't gotten my average or rank yet, but I think my past assessments have been around the 65-70% range and ranked in the top half-ish of the cohort (60-something students)...just.
My concerns with continuing english adv are:
1. For year 12 I really want to focus on chemistry and maths adv as those are my worst subjects and i am more interested in them and their uni pathways, would english adv be too time-consuming to focus on the other subjects and still do well
2. I HATE Shakespeare I literally don't understand it, and I know it is a big part of advanced. in years 10 and 11 I always had to read the translation to understand anything, I could never spot language techniques, and I'm gonna be honest, I ended up using ai to help with analysis
3. I hate English.... like actually, if i could drop it i would. i hate every class and find it hard to pay attention, would it even be worth it to do adv if i hate english..
4. my essay writing in past years has been quite good like getting 95% so doesnt this prove its the content rather than my skill?
5. also, looking at past exams, the questions are all so idk..philosophical...theoretical, which my brain is more like straightforward/literal thinking, so I might struggle with that
6. also, my sister did std, so I have her resources plus advice.

BUT with all that being said i have some concerns with doing standard as well:
1. scaling. the scaling is so cooked for std so would it be better to do bad in adv than a bit better in std?
2. it's basically the same stuff, just different texts, right? So kinda, what's the point of risking bad scaling if it's kinda the same


IDK UGH, I've been thinking abt it for so long, and I still can't decide. sorry if this is kinda hard to understand I just wanted to say all my thoughts... also I kinda need to decide by next week as that's when I can change classes and units, and if I do drop, I don't want to miss too much. thanks!

 

[Masaken]

hi! I am currently in year 11 (I just started year 12 content), and I'm doing English advanced. I haven't had the best year, so my marks for everything have been pretty bad. for English prelim, I got 60% I haven't gotten my average or rank yet, but I think my past assessments have been around the 65-70% range and ranked in the top half-ish of the cohort (60-something students)...just.
My concerns with continuing english adv are:
1. For year 12 I really want to focus on chemistry and maths adv as those are my worst subjects and i am more interested in them and their uni pathways, would english adv be too time-consuming to focus on the other subjects and still do well
2. I HATE Shakespeare I literally don't understand it, and I know it is a big part of advanced. in years 10 and 11 I always had to read the translation to understand anything, I could never spot language techniques, and I'm gonna be honest, I ended up using ai to help with analysis
3. I hate English.... like actually, if i could drop it i would. i hate every class and find it hard to pay attention, would it even be worth it to do adv if i hate english..
4. my essay writing in past years has been quite good like getting 95% so doesnt this prove its the content rather than my skill?
5. also, looking at past exams, the questions are all so idk..philosophical...theoretical, which my brain is more like straightforward/literal thinking, so I might struggle with that
6. also, my sister did std, so I have her resources plus advice.

BUT with all that being said i have some concerns with doing standard as well:
1. scaling. the scaling is so cooked for std so would it be better to do bad in adv than a bit better in std?
2. it's basically the same stuff, just different texts, right? So kinda, what's the point of risking bad scaling if it's kinda the same


IDK UGH, I've been thinking abt it for so long, and I still can't decide. sorry if this is kinda hard to understand I just wanted to say all my thoughts... also I kinda need to decide by next week as that's when I can change classes and units, and if I do drop, I don't want to miss too much. thanks!

1) English isn’t necessarily a very time-consuming subject - as long as you stay on top of your work but this really applies to all your subjects. English is a mandatory subject so everyone in the state has taken it and they have definitely balanced it out with more rigorous subjects such as Maths and Chemistry. As long as you can balance your time out wisely you can dedicate enough time to all your subjects and do well in all of them
2) From my experience the majority of the English Advanced student body does not know what is going on with their Shakespeare text - if I didn’t have my teachers explaining what was going on every few lines or the little translation notes on the side of my book I had no idea what was going on and I ranked 1st in my school. The best part of Shakespeare however is that his works are some of the most analysed in literature, meaning if you don’t understand what’s going on, you have multiple resources available online (Litcharts, critical articles, etc) analysing Shakespeare and translating his words for you. Listen to your teachers when they’re explaining what’s going on, and if you still don’t understand, hit up the internet to help you out. It won’t take long to find a lot of good stuff for your Shakespeare text
3) I do think it’s worth doing Advanced because if you’re not generally a fan of English you might not enjoy Standard - the difficulty level between the two is very slim and the only difference in term of content is no Shakespeare. If you’re not a fan of what’s going on in English beyond Shakespeare you probably might not enjoy Standard either. Since English is mandatory however you might as well stick with the course that aligns better and has a better cohort
4) 95% is an amazing mark and this suggests to me it’s probably the content which is a lot easier to fix than skill, because with content if your teachers aren’t teaching you there are so many available resources online to help you analyse your text and also essay exemplars especially in the HSC year
5) I personally felt like Year 12 questions were easier to answer than in Year 11 for English because even though they seem difficult, the questions are very closely tied to the rubrics - meaning the questions they ask just have key words or buzzwords/buzz-phrases(?) for terms and concepts in the rubric. As long as you remember those and understand the rubric basically and you can apply it to your text you’ll be able to answer the questions fine

The scaling in Advanced and Standard is the same since English is mandatory and there needs to be a common scale somewhere but the alignment is different because Advanced has a “better” cohort (you can even see this in how many Band 6s both courses get each year, last year less than 100 people got Band 6 in Standard while in Advanced this was around 3000 I think). Like I said before, apart from Shakespeare both courses are pretty much the same but you have a higher chance of getting higher mark in Advanced as long as you put in the effort

 

[Dontcallmedude]

Eng standard is eng advanced but the text's and scaling is worse. Think, people who suck at hsc where do they go? They can completely drop maths but English is a requirement.

 

[ilovecutecats]

Don't drop advanced english, my friends don't understand shakespeare either, but they just memorise their essays and do well. The current syllabus is actually so easy to game. JUST MEMORISE YOUR ESSAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!. The kids that write their essays on the spot in the exam and try and explain all the shakespeare stuff do bad compared to the kids who already memorise analysis. Also standard english and advanced english is very very similar. 40% of the exam is the exact same (paper 1). Regarding the other 60%, its "harder" texts but you can js memorise your essays and adapt to questions on the spot. My 3u eng mates dont even read their texts and I think their HSC is over now.

 

[Vintu]

hi! I am currently in year 11 (I just started year 12 content), and I'm doing English advanced. I haven't had the best year, so my marks for everything have been pretty bad. for English prelim, I got 60% I haven't gotten my average or rank yet, but I think my past assessments have been around the 65-70% range and ranked in the top half-ish of the cohort (60-something students)...just.
My concerns with continuing english adv are:
1. For year 12 I really want to focus on chemistry and maths adv as those are my worst subjects and i am more interested in them and their uni pathways, would english adv be too time-consuming to focus on the other subjects and still do well
2. I HATE Shakespeare I literally don't understand it, and I know it is a big part of advanced. in years 10 and 11 I always had to read the translation to understand anything, I could never spot language techniques, and I'm gonna be honest, I ended up using ai to help with analysis
3. I hate English.... like actually, if i could drop it i would. i hate every class and find it hard to pay attention, would it even be worth it to do adv if i hate english..
4. my essay writing in past years has been quite good like getting 95% so doesnt this prove its the content rather than my skill?
5. also, looking at past exams, the questions are all so idk..philosophical...theoretical, which my brain is more like straightforward/literal thinking, so I might struggle with that
6. also, my sister did std, so I have her resources plus advice.

BUT with all that being said i have some concerns with doing standard as well:
1. scaling. the scaling is so cooked for std so would it be better to do bad in adv than a bit better in std?
2. it's basically the same stuff, just different texts, right? So kinda, what's the point of risking bad scaling if it's kinda the same


IDK UGH, I've been thinking abt it for so long, and I still can't decide. sorry if this is kinda hard to understand I just wanted to say all my thoughts... also I kinda need to decide by next week as that's when I can change classes and units, and if I do drop, I don't want to miss too much. thanks!

Based on your marks, it doesn't make much sense to drop to standard. I was originally in advanced and then dropped to standard but my marks were substantially worse and I was on the border of failing advanced completely. Because advanced scales insanely well just being in the top half of your cohort will mean your final mark will probably still be better than if you were in standard.

 

[watermelonenjoyer]

i was in the same position last week and people kept telling me the scaling's worse for standard so i didn't drop, so this year is gonna be pain and torture bc the content sux (i also have pretty much the same marks as you)

 

[greersy_01]

Based on your marks, it doesn't make much sense to drop to standard. I was originally in advanced and then dropped to standard but my marks were substantially worse and I was on the border of failing advanced completely. Because advanced scales insanely well just being in the top half of your cohort will mean your final mark will probably still be better than if you were in standard.

okay so i just got my rank today and i was 46/62... does this change anything cause thats like so low

 

[greersy_01]

i was in the same position last week and people kept telling me the scaling's worse for standard so i didn't drop, so this year is gonna be pain and torture bc the content sux (i also have pretty much the same marks as you)

ughh ik we just started 1984 and i hate it already

 

[e8zks]

hi! I am currently in year 11 (I just started year 12 content), and I'm doing English advanced. I haven't had the best year, so my marks for everything have been pretty bad. for English prelim, I got 60% I haven't gotten my average or rank yet, but I think my past assessments have been around the 65-70% range and ranked in the top half-ish of the cohort (60-something students)...just.
My concerns with continuing english adv are:
1. For year 12 I really want to focus on chemistry and maths adv as those are my worst subjects and i am more interested in them and their uni pathways, would english adv be too time-consuming to focus on the other subjects and still do well
2. I HATE Shakespeare I literally don't understand it, and I know it is a big part of advanced. in years 10 and 11 I always had to read the translation to understand anything, I could never spot language techniques, and I'm gonna be honest, I ended up using ai to help with analysis
3. I hate English.... like actually, if i could drop it i would. i hate every class and find it hard to pay attention, would it even be worth it to do adv if i hate english..
4. my essay writing in past years has been quite good like getting 95% so doesnt this prove its the content rather than my skill?
5. also, looking at past exams, the questions are all so idk..philosophical...theoretical, which my brain is more like straightforward/literal thinking, so I might struggle with that
6. also, my sister did std, so I have her resources plus advice.

BUT with all that being said i have some concerns with doing standard as well:
1. scaling. the scaling is so cooked for std so would it be better to do bad in adv than a bit better in std?
2. it's basically the same stuff, just different texts, right? So kinda, what's the point of risking bad scaling if it's kinda the same


IDK UGH, I've been thinking abt it for so long, and I still can't decide. sorry if this is kinda hard to understand I just wanted to say all my thoughts... also I kinda need to decide by next week as that's when I can change classes and units, and if I do drop, I don't want to miss too much. thanks!

No, unless you are going seriously bad, do not drop
Reasons:
Teaches better stuff
Scales better
Looks better

 

[watermelonenjoyer]

ughh ik we just started 1984 and i hate it already

our class too!! i can't bring myself to read it it's so ugh

 

[axe]

just memorise an exemplar essay. you dont have to understand shit, thats what i did and got predicted a band 6, i dont do anything in english, i havent payed attention in any of the lessons. just learn how to adapt properly, thats where people lose pretty much all their marks. the course is so exploitable its not even funny just do that and ur set

 

[e8zks]

just memorise an exemplar essay. you dont have to understand shit, thats what i did and got predicted a band 6, i dont do anything in english, i havent payed attention in any of the lessons. just learn how to adapt properly, thats where people lose pretty much all their marks. the course is so exploitable its not even funny just do that and ur set

actually true, might I also add, you can use ai for everything, that's what my friend did and went pretty well in eng

 

[ilovecutecats]

just memorise an exemplar essay. you dont have to understand shit, thats what i did and got predicted a band 6, i dont do anything in english, i havent payed attention in any of the lessons. just learn how to adapt properly, thats where people lose pretty much all their marks. the course is so exploitable its not even funny just do that and ur set

As crazy as it sounds axe is right. All the kids in 2 and 3u eng in my school don't like the subject nor care about it, they just memorise essays and adapt on the spot.

 

[Vintu]

okay so i just got my rank today and i was 46/62... does this change anything cause thats like so low

I would say still you should most likely stay in adv cause your marks still aren't awful even tho you are not in the top half. If your rank is in the bottom 10-15% then I would say you should drop (I was so I did). Also, if you decide to go to standard, you have to make sure you do exceptionally well not to get pulled down, you have to be within the top 10-20% of your grade cause most people in standard don't care at all about the subject

 

[PhoenixG1rl]

JUST MEMORISE YOUR ESSAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!. The kids that write their essays on the spot in the exam and try and explain all the shakespeare stuff do bad compared to the kids who already memorise analysis. 40% of the exam is the exact same (paper 1). Regarding the other 60%, its "harder" texts but you can js memorise your essays and adapt to questions on the spot.

Hey, just wondering, how does one memorise essays if they have no clue what the questions are going to be? I did ok in my prelims but really want to improve with essay and long-form creative writing cause that's where I lost the most marks.

 

[ilovecutecats]

Hey, just wondering, how does one memorise essays if they have no clue what the questions are going to be? I did ok in my prelims but really want to improve with essay and long-form creative writing cause that's where I lost the most marks.

essay has to be very general and based on the module, you can find them online, pay somebody to make a good one, or perfect one yourself and get feedback.

 

[PhoenixG1rl]

essay has to be very general and based on the module, you can find them online, pay somebody to make a good one, or perfect one yourself and get feedback.

if its general, then won't it not really answer the question as well as one thats written specifically to respond to a certain essay question?

 

[spiderfan44]

Hey, just wondering, how does one memorise essays if they have no clue what the questions are going to be? I did ok in my prelims but really want to improve with essay and long-form creative writing cause that's where I lost the most marks.

you have to practise being more adaptable with essays. generally people will do an essay that is quite broad and can be applied to a variety of questions. you also can have a look at the rubric and identify keywords/themes and practise answering those, they cant ask you essay questions unrelated to the rubric

 

[spiderfan44]

if its general, then won't it not really answer the question as well as one thats written specifically to respond to a certain essay question?

you kind of have to tailor it on the fly. you get better at it when you practise adapting your essay to different questions

 

[PhoenixG1rl]

you kind of have to tailor it on the fly. you get better at it when you practise adapting your essay to different questions

Thanks for those tips, thats actually really helpful! Now i just gotta practice doing essays and getting my teacher to mark them & give feedback